2019 Open Enrollment Highlights

AU offers a comprehensive and competitive benefits package to support you and your family, and once a year during Open Enrollment, you have the opportunity to make changes to your benefits elections.

This year, the Open Enrollment period is November 5-26, 2018. During this time, you may elect or change coverage for your health plan, dental plan, life insurance, legal services, and flexible spending accounts. 

Our health care plan rates are dependent on the amount of claims we receive the previous year. While we had a good claims experience with Kaiser, we had large claims in our CareFirst plan, and our 2019 rates are reflective of our claim experience.

• Kaiser rates decreased by 2.5%.
• CareFirst rates increased by 8%, with increases in coinsurance and deductibles. The university negotiated the rates and made plan changes to keep the plan costs are as low as possible.
• Most of our plans have no cost changes this year.

We are excited that ConnectYourCare is the 2019 administrator for flexible spending accounts and commuter benefits. ConnectYourCare offers 24-hour customer care, an easy-to-use website, and lower fees than our previous administrator.

What should you do next?

For all of the information on benefits and plan changes, visit the myBenefits site. If you do nothing, your medical, dental, legal, life and personal accident insurance elections will roll into the next year as-is. However, your flexible spending accounts do not roll over, and action must be taken if you wish to continue these in the coming year.

If you want to make changes to your elections, take the following steps:

• Go to the AU portal and make your changes to your open enrollment benefits by November 26
• The myBenefits enrollment site is accessible through the link above or the myAU portal > Work@AU > Benefits: myBenefits,

We are here to help you. Contact myBenefits@american.edu or 202-885-3400 for assistance.

Return to top

Performance Management 2018-2019

You’ve been busy, working with your teams and planning out your year. The Performance Form is now open in AsuccessfulU to make that planning even easier! Capture your ongoing work and record your performance discussions to help track your progress and make adjustments to meet your goals.

Performance Management Tips and Updates:

1. Use one simple performance form to enter your goals, record your progress, and in May, finalize your performance with ratings and final comments. Your competencies are visible all year to remind you to incorporate them into your performance discussions.
2. Engage in ongoing, meaningful performance conversations and feedback. It’s a great way to keep expectations clear throughout the year, understand what needs to be adjusted, and give everyone a chance to be successful. If you're already having these conversations, great! Just make sure to capture notes from your discussions on the Performance Form.
3. Need more? We have resources, e-learning, and specialized consulting to fit your needs. Take a look at the AsuccessfulU portal page to find these and more.

There is a real benefit in taking time to pause and reflect on how your work is progressing, explore opportunities for learning and growth and incorporate those reflections into your performance conversations. Research shows that having ongoing performance conversations with your supervisor can have a 40% positive increase in performance and helps us to grow both personally and professionally. 

Return to top